Today there are seemingly unlimited sources for humorous material of all types.  Cable and satellite TV offer 24-hour comedy stations as well as movie channels devoted solely to the comedy genre.  Video and DVD rental stores have comedy sections with hundreds of movies to choose from.  There are thousands of humor books available at the library or bookstores, both locally and online. 

And, of course, there is always the Internet.  A Yahoo search of the word “humor” yielded more than 41 million sites!  You can find general humor sites as well as sites specializing in a particular category of humor.   A quick scan revealed sites devoted to philosophical humor, college humor, psychological humor, political humor, Christian humor, garden humor, humor in the news, science humor, twisted humor, police humor, sports humor, kids humor, farm humor and dozens more.  There are even sites where you can sign up to have a joke e-mailed to you every day.  One such site, www.AjokeAday.com, promises clean humor and claims to be the number one full-time, professionally maintained joke site since 1995.

Laughter is not a cure-all and Dr. Berk does not suggest that patients discontinue their medications or other treatments.  However, laughter can help you harness your inner healing resources.  It can essentially convert the negative, destructive effects of stress into positive, healing energy.  So let yourself go.  Let that smile give way to a giggle, then let that giggle burst into a wholehearted laugh! 

To get you started, here are some of my all-time favorites...

Laughing at Life

For many years I have kept a file folder labeled “Giggles.”  Whenever I come across a joke, a cartoon or a story that strikes me as funny, I drop it into the file.  On days I am feeling a little down or discouraged, I pull out my file and have a good laugh.  Being a writer, I particularly enjoy the real-life linguistic bloopers.  Below are some of my favorites.

Actual sentences from letters to a county welfare department: